10 Recent Horror Reveals Nobody Was Ready For

4. It Was An Intentional Suicide Mission - Mako

Chucky Nica Fiona Dourif
Netflix

As Mako opens, documentary filmmaker Rana Bahgat gets the 2017 Academy Awards treatment. Of course, that edition of the Oscars saw La La Land erroneously announced as winning the Best Picture gong, before it was revealed that Moonlight was the actual winner of that award.

For Rana, her film is accidentally stated as the winner of a prestigious trinket, when in reality it was her filmmaker husband's documentary that was the victor. Added more to Rana's embarrassment, she trips over on her way back to her seat, becoming a laughing stock in her native Egypt and beyond.

Desperate to find a subject matter that can repair her reputation, Rana and her crew of eight - including her hubby Sherif - decide to explore the Salem Express. The Salem Express is a passenger ship that resides on the bottom of the Red Sea after sinking in 1991, and to this day it houses the corpses of those who were trapped in the vessel.

The dive to the Salem Express puts our central group up against mako sharks, in addition to their own dwindling mental states. By the time all is said and done, Rana is the only one to survive this expedition - for which she does finally win her award.

Towards Mako's close, though, we get the reveal that Gharam - who suggested the Salem Express in the first place - lost her parents in the Salem sinking. Gharam's motivation here? She simply wanted to die and be reunited with her family... in turn costing the lives of so many others.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.